Teaching Ecology in Haiti

During my second week here in Haiti I am teaching in the schools. I’ll chronicle the experience here.

Curriculum – I'm using laminated visual aids (see post) that I put in one binder so that it’s portable whether I’m walking, on motorcycle, ATV, or truck. I teach that hawks (malfini) eat rats. Even though they also eat chickens, the benefit of eating the rats that eat chicken eggs, rice, and corn far outweighs the loss of chickens. I ask whether the children would rather have rats or malfini. Next I talk about hummingbirds (wanga). There are 4 in Haiti, one of which is in the US (ruby-throated). I come to Haiti to see the other 3 (Antillean mango, Hispaniolan emerald, and the world’s 2^nd smallest bird the vervain hummingbird). The wanga pollinate the flowers when they drink the nectar. Finally, we talk about parakeets (parriche) and parrots (jako) that eat fruit and spread the seeds (someone mentioned they also eat corn), thereby planting trees. I ask what the kids do when they see a nest. The usual answer is touch it, destroy it, etc. We talk about how there are fewer birds when they do that. And reiterate that malfini eat rats, wanga help make fruit, and parakeets/parrots help plant trees. I finish with what will they do next time they see a next. Answer – leave it alone! By the way, Kristie said she’s seeing more birds on their property and thinks kids are remembering this lesson.

A variation of this talk includes the life cycle of birds, frogs, and butterflies. I have the kids come up and help me put the visual aids in order from egg to adult. We talk about frogs (krapo) eating insects such as flies and mosquitoes, and butterflies pollinating flowers. I show them my frog necklace and reiterate that mwen renmen krapo (I like frogs). There is a myth that if a frog pees in your eye it will pop! Many people are afraid of frogs in the way that Americans are afraid of spiders or snakes. We finish with the Ti Zwazo song that everyone seems to know. The words are in the book Ti Zwazo Kote W A Prale that I bought at the Audubon office in Port au Prince last year.

I hand out to each kid either a bookmark with life cycles on one side and hydrologic cycle on the back, or a page of the bird guide by Florence Sergile. I give the principle either a binder of the teaching material, or binoculars with a bird guide.

Friday – UCI (United Christians International) Dironot translated. This is the school on UCI property in Caiman that was built and opened last year to school the children and employ the teachers who had to move here after the Jan. 2010 earthquake. I taught in 4 classrooms, two rooms of about 25 each 2-3 yr olds (they start them early), 25 4-5 yr olds, and 25 6-9 year olds.

Saturday – UCI youth group. JeanJean translated. The teens who go to Pastor JeanJean’s church meet in the worship center. We talked about the hydrologic cycle and the importance of trees for clean water both to drink and for fish habitat. I encouraged them to start now planting trees and in 10 years they’ll be glad they did. UCI has a nursery and the teens will start a tree project.

Monday – Fwa Kretyen de la Jeune (Pignon) – (down the highway from the cemetery, towards Pignon, turn at the sign in the photo). Derold translated. Dropped off by truck around 8a, finished around 9:30am. I spoke in 6 classrooms (ages are a guess): 15 preteens; 16 7^th graders; 37 ~10 yr olds; 20 3-4 yr olds; 30 teens in the same room as 22 4 – 5 yr olds who faced a different wall; ~40 5 – 6 yr olds.

We then walked to National Public School (green school with large trees that had red flowers and huge been pods). They weren’t expecting us, but graciously assembled all the kids (~150, blue checkered uniforms) outside under the trees. I gave the principle a pair of binoculars for the school, and laminated bird guides for the teachers. I spoke for about ½ hour. JeanJean mentioned they haven’t had any activities yet at this school. Principle said they don’t have people teaching what I teach.

Then walked home (turn at the new HAFF lodging), arrived around 10:30a. Hot & sunny day!

Monday afternoon – For about 1 hour I talked with 6 UCI employees who work in the nursery and tend gardens. Reviewed hydrologic cycle and what I teach kids. They thought bats came from old mice that metamorphed, so showed them the laminated illustrations of mother and baby bats, and babies drinking milk and staying warm. They would like a longer workshop, so I suggested they organize it and invite other communities, and give tours of UCI projects.

Three Pairs of Shoes*

If you're going to Haiti bring three pairs of shoes. A sturdy walking pair that dries quickly, like Tevas or Keens, and two pairs of flipflops, one for walking around outside in the compound, and one for inside the dorm. My checked luggage didn't come in our our international flight, I didn't get it until 5 days later. The thing I missed most was my flipflops. I had my Keens on me, but they're not easy to slip on and off when I'm going in and out of the dorm or house. And my feet were getting dirty from the dorm floor (relatively clean but with a team of 23 people it gets dusty). So then I had my routine of wiping my feet on a towel before getting into bed each night. Fortunately, I always pack with the assumption that my check luggage will be delayed or lost, so I had all the basics with me carryon.

*I haven't yet read Three Cups of Tea, but it's on my list.

Trip #4 - lots of rain

I'm back in Haiti, this is the latest in the year that I've been here. I'm used to the browness of the dry season in the winter. Now everything is green and there's lots of rain. The MAF pilot wasn't sure that we'd be able to make it from Port au Prince to Pignon, but we did and he made it back to PAP. The larger missionary planes couldn't land because the landing strip was so saturated, they had to land on the north coast and Kristie and JeanJean drove there (4 hrs) to pick them up. Here are some pictures from the 1st couple days. I am here with two women from my church.

T-shirts for ecotour guides and teachers

I designed a t-shirt for the ecotour guide I teach in Haiti, both to help him brand himself so others can see how they can profit from the environment, and so he doesn’t get lost to his customers in the sea of people at the market. I’d like to give a shirt to the leader of each place I teach this summer, as a reminder that while the environment may be messed up, there are still beautiful birds and plants there, and *bats! The logo on the right with the bird says Birds across the top, and Ecotour Haiti. The one with the bats says Enjoy Haiti, Ecotour! (or literally, ecologically tour).

If you would like to help with this endeavor, you could send me $20 per shirt, or buy them yourselves and have them shipped to me. I didn’t mark up the prices at cafepress, since I don’t want to make money off of the shirts (I’d rather you help me directly!). And I want them to be affordable to whomever wants one. http://www.cafepress.com/zwazoyo

* Bats are the only native mammal I’ve seen there. There are a couple other native mammals in the national forests.

Life cycles and food chains nan Kreyol

This summer I return to Caiman to teach more ecology! I am expanding beyond birds to teach about other animals, so I put together wordless visual aids that depict life cycles of fish, bats, dragonflies, frogs, etc. Thanks to my friends Diana & Mark who donated their laminator (plus a huge financial donation), I am able to laminate them and make sets for other people in Haiti. The idea is that participants (mainly little kids) can put each life cycle in order, then create food chains from all the animals. On the back of each I’ll put a label with speaking points in Kreyol (then if I get something wrong, I can change it). I’ll also print out each life cycle as a laminated strip (like a book marker) that I can pass out to the kids. Thanks to everyone who gave donations for this project! I wouldn't be able to do as much without your help.

Friend Kristie steered me in the right direction for words like juvenile, and adult. Please comment about what terms you hear in Haiti. And let me know if you would like to use the visual aids.

Adult animal – 'Yon bet ki majè' for adult animal, or you could use more common terminology and say 'vye bet' or 'ansyen bet' (don't use granmoun).

Juvenile animal – Jenn, examples: 'yon jenn bourik' or ‘yon jenn bef.’

Chick of a bird – Pousen is a good word for young of chickens only. You can use 'ti poul' too. For other young of birds in general use 'ti bet' if you want to emphasize that it is the young of a particular species say 'pitit tako' or 'pitit grigri.'

Baby bats (which are pups in English) – Baby bats would just be 'ti chochol' or again 'pitit chochol' to emphasize that it is the offspring of the bats.

Trees – If you talk about trees in general use 'pyebwa yo.' For general fruit trees say 'pye fwi yo.' For a particular type of tree say 'pye mango' or 'pye zoranj.' The word for wood is 'bwa.'

Team information

Here is a one-blog stop for information that teams need about visiting UCI in Haiti.

The missionaries: Kristie is a nurse & agriculture specialist, JeanJean a pastor.

Generic itinerary

What to pack

Food

Creole dictionaries & audio to download (also sold at KU union)

Books about Haiti

See Haitian American Friendship Foundation for more visitor info.

In Haiti we fly on MAF - It’s a 20 minute flight from the airport in Port Au Prince to the airstrip in Pignon where the Mompremiers will pick us up in their truck, and drive us the 8 miles to their house. The plane holds 5 passengers, so we’ll charter 2 flights if there’s more than 5 of us.

Hospital – there’s one in Pignon – 8 miles away, but around 30 minutes by truck on bumpy road.

Teaching venues:

Schools in Bohoc and Caiman

UCI school - built after the earthquake

UCI church and worship center

Nutrition centers – where kids are fed and taught Bible stories, etc. Video

Plumbing & electricity:

+++2 outdoor pit toilets like at state parks, and 2 newly installed flush toilets & sinks connected to the dorm. Since the Mompremiers rely on water being pumped up from a river and seem to not know when the pump will be turned on, I chose to use the pit toilets (and after the quake they asked people to not use the flush toilets so they can save water). Don’t drink or brush teeth from the sink water! Use filtered water from the house.

+++3 showers which use water caught in giant barrels – the water is cold until the afternoon sun heats it up!

+++ Solar electricity when sun is out and shining. They turn on the generator at night so teams have electricity in the dorm. They have internet in their house so we can let people know we’re ok. It gets dark around 6p so the day ends early.

The gate to their property is locked at night, and there’s a night guard (& three dogs). In the dorm we lock ourselves in at night (and the doors rattle reaaallly loud if you need to get up in the night to use the bathroom.).

Immunizations

**Check with your County Health Dept or Doctor, these are only my opinions, what I was told, or and what I found on-line as of 15-Feb-2011**

CDC site for Haiti - tells you what vaccinations you need. (I don't think you need the rabies unless you're working with animals. Don't pet any dogs unless they are missionary pets that you're told are ok to pet. Haitian dogs are more for guarding than for pets.)

Hepatitis A&B - I was told that if you received the TwinRix AB 3-series shots you only need them once in your life.

Typhoid - The live culture (4 pills you have to refrigerate) gives you 5 years of protection. The shot version protects you for fewer years. See CDC typhoid page for caveats.

Malaria - The malaria protozoan in Haiti is not resistant to the older medicine Chloroquine, so get that. You have to take the pills once a week, 1 - 2 weeks before you go, while you are in Haiti, and for 4 weeks after you return. Pharmacies in my town don't always have them in stock, so plan early so they can order the pills.

Tetanus - You should have this anyway! Get a booster every 10 years.